Understanding the effects of school social networks on young people's health

Adolescent health behaviours, such as smoking, drinking and drug use, are ‘social‘ behaviours and young people‘s attitudes and actions relating to these behaviours are influenced by their friendships and developing sense of identity. Research suggests that, as young people meet new friends, form strong relationships and develop their ‘identities‘ at secondary school, these in turn influence young people‘s health-related behaviours. Young people‘s use or rejection of substances such as cigarettes, alcohol and illegal drugs is a particularly important element in how many friendship groups identify themselves. For example, there are the ‘smokers‘ and ‘pot heads‘ using some or all of these substances and also the ‘football boys‘ and ‘sporty girls‘ who may reject these substances. The aim of this study is to explore further these ideas and investigate how schools influence the size, shape, identity and other characteristics of students‘ social networks and how these relate to aspects of young people‘s health-related behaviours. This study will use a mix of different research methods, including new analyses of existing quantitative data and interviews with groups of young people, to provide clearer evidence about the effects of school social networks on young people‘s health and, ultimately, to improve public health actions and inform further research in this area.

Background: Social network analysis views young people‘s social relationships in terms of nodes (individuals) and ties (relationships) and can be applied to understanding health determinants. In order to promote young people‘s health it is important to understand and modify the effects of the school environment beyond merely the provision of health education. One important aspect of this is how schools structure the size, shape, identity and other characteristics of students‘ social networks and how these relate to aspects of young people‘s health-related behaviours.
Research aim and objectives: The aim is to investigate what factors shape young people‘s school social networks and how these networks influence health behaviours. The study will do this through examining how young people‘s social networks differ according to school-level and individual-level factors, identifying associations between these structures and health-related attitudes and behaviours, and exploring the processes through which social network effects may occur.
Methods: This research is comprised of three sub-projects: (1) a systematic review to appraise and synthesize the existing evidence relating to young people‘s social networks and all the key adolescent health behaviours (substance use, sexual behaviour, physical activity, diet); (2) secondary analyses of school-level sociometric data from the Teenage Health in Schools (THiS) survey to identify cross-sectional associations and test hypotheses regarding school-level influences on young people‘s social networks and adolescent health behaviours (substance use and physical activity); and (3) group interviews with young people to explore the plausibility of school social network effects on health and processes through which school social network effects may occur.
Collaborations: The research involves collaborations with epidemiologists, statisticians, mathematicians and public health sociologists across three different institutions (LSHTM, the MRC Social and Public Health Sciences Unit and the University of Southern California).
Research outputs: This study will provide a systematic and comprehensive understanding of school social network effects on young people‘s health, and identify scope for further studies of young people‘s social networks and public health interventions aiming to influence these.